U.S. patent number 5,640,192 [Application Number 08/639,519] was granted by the patent office on 1997-06-17 for interactive viewer response system.
Invention is credited to Norton Garfinkle.
United States Patent |
5,640,192 |
Garfinkle |
June 17, 1997 |
Interactive viewer response system
Abstract
An interactive television system in which the television program
and a computer program are integrated to provide a viewer-friendly
environment in which the viewer can participate on a real time
basis with other viewers. The programmed computer system receives
inputs from viewers in response to the television program content.
A programmed interactive computer system processes the viewer
inputs in accordance with parameters and algorithms correlated with
the transmitted television program material. The system processes,
for each participating viewer, his or her results based on the
algorithm for the broadcast television program and the inputs of
the other participating viewers. This individual data is stored and
is made accessible to the viewer; in the preferred embodiment via a
voice synthesizer to the participating viewer who initiates a call
to the system.
Inventors: |
Garfinkle; Norton (Boca Raton,
FL) |
Family
ID: |
23414252 |
Appl.
No.: |
08/639,519 |
Filed: |
May 1, 1996 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
|
|
359536 |
Dec 20, 1994 |
5530469 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
725/116;
348/E7.071; 725/24 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N
7/17318 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04N
7/173 (20060101); H04N 007/173 () |
Field of
Search: |
;348/1,13,12,5,6
;455/3.1,5.1,6.1,4.2 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Lee; Michael H.
Assistant Examiner: Grant; Chris
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Lane, Aitken & McCann
Parent Case Text
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/359,536, filed
Dec. 20, 1994 U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,469.
Claims
Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire
to secure by Letters Patent is as follows:
1. An interactive system to allow viewers to interact with program
material, comprising in combination:
a computer processor;
means for coupling inbound viewer responses to said program
material to an input of said computer processor;
means for storing parameters and computer program routines for
correlating multiple viewer responses with said program
material;
said computer processor computing a result for each viewer based on
said multiple viewer responses and a tabulation of results for a
group of viewers in response to said inbound viewer responses, said
computation made in accordance with said parameters and computer
routines accessed from said means for storing;
a second means for storing said result for each viewer and a
tabulation of results for a group of responding viewers;
said computer processor calculating a composite result for a viewer
based on the viewer's result and said results for a group of
responding viewers; and
means coupled to said processor to transmit said composite result
to a viewer in response to a viewer request for said composite
result.
2. An interactive method to allow viewers to interact with program
material, including the steps of:
coupling inbound viewer responses to said program material to an
input of a computer processor;
storing parameters and computer program routines for correlating
multiple viewer responses with said program material;
computing a result for each viewer based on said multiple viewer
responses and a tabulation of results for a group of viewers in
response to said inbound viewer responses, said computation made in
accordance with said parameters and computer routines stored in
said storing step;
storing said result for each viewer and a tabulation of results for
a group of responding viewers;
calculating a composite result for a viewer based on the viewer's
result and said results for a group of responding viewers; and
transmitting said composite result to a viewer in response to a
viewer request for said composite result.
3. An interactive system as in claim 1 wherein said viewer
responses are correlated with said program material based upon a
time of receipt of said viewer responses.
4. An interactive system as in claim 1 wherein said viewer
responses are correlated with said program material based upon
content of said viewer responses.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an interactive television system, and
more particularly, to a computerized interactive television system
in which viewer inputs are correlated in real time with other
viewer inputs, and particularized results made available to each
participating viewer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are a number of prior art proposals for interactive
television. Some of these proposals have been implemented, such as,
for example, home shopping television programs. More sophisticated
proposals include a system reported in the New York Times on Aug.
17, 1994 as being developed by Econ Corporation to take advantage
of the new wireless interactive television services being licensed
by the FCC. Here, viewers would use on-screen menus to select
program options or respond to advertisements. A control center
processes and routes data between viewers homes and service
providers over a satellite link. Cell sites, which are similar to
relay stations used in cellular phone networks, are links between
the viewers and the satellite. A wireless unit passes data to and
from the cell site and viewers use a remote control device to make
inputs from an on-screen menu.
These prior art proposals are limited in their interactive reach.
Only in a broad sense do they integrate viewer input into the
program itself. The television home shopping programs are an
example. The program hosts may engage in a conversation with one of
the viewers relative to the merchandise being offered and may
display or report a tally of the number of units purchased. But
these prior art interactive television systems to not provide for
the integration into the program of all participating viewers both
collectively and individually in an active role.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is the provision of a computerized
interactive television system that correlates viewer responses and
provides particularized results to participating viewers.
Another object of this invention is the provision of a computerized
interactive television system that can be readily and inexpensively
implemented with presently existing technology and facilities.
Briefly, this invention relates to an interactive television system
in which the television program and a computer program are
integrated to provide a viewer-friendly environment in which the
viewer can participate on a real time basis with other viewers. The
programmed computer system, which may, if desired, use service
bureau computer equipment, receives inputs from viewers in response
to the television program content. The viewer input is preferably
(although not necessarily) coupled over a publicly switched
telephone network. Voice inputs are contemplated in the preferred
embodiment of the invention, although provision could be made also
for other inputs, such as DTMF tones (i.e. standard telephone touch
tone inputs). The programmed interactive computer system processes
the viewer inputs in accordance with parameters and algorithms
correlated with the transmitted television program material,
including announced objectives to which those viewers who elect to
participate respond. The computer system also tabulates the input
data across all participants responding to a particular televised
objective or set of objectives and feeds the overall tabulated data
to television station or cable head for real time broadcast. The
system processes, for each participating viewer, his or her results
based on the algorithm for the broadcast television program and the
inputs of the other participating viewers. This individual data is
stored and is made accessible to the viewer; in the preferred
embodiment via a voice synthesizer to the participating viewer who
initiates a call to the system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be
better understood from the following detailed description of a
preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the
drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an interactive television system in
accordance with the teachings of this invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the logical components of one
embodiment of a computer system for carrying out the functions of
the interactive television system of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to FIG. 1, a television source 12, such as a
commercial television broadcast station or cable head, transmits
television program material to a plurality of viewer sets 14 over a
link 16. The program material is preferably specially prepared or
adapted for interactive participation by viewers at sets 14. The
program material may be pre-recorded or a live broadcast and
includes recurrent prompts for viewer response. The progression of
the broadcast program material may be coupled over a suitable link
18 to an interactive computer system 20. The system 20 includes a
memory in which is loaded data parameters to analyze and tabulate
viewer responses to the program material, a program routine for
tabulating collective data based on all or a selected group of
viewer responses, and a program routine for tabulating individual
performance data as a function of group response.
The interactive processor 20 may be located at the broadcast
station 12, but is preferably located at a central station, such as
a computer service bureau, and the interactive system 20 may serve
more than one broadcast location 12. Viewers who wish to
participate in the interactive program material may respond via
telephone sets 22 and a public, switched telephone network 23,
which provides a dial up connection to the interactive system 20.
Alternative response technologies, such as that discussed in the
previously referenced New York Times article, are also within the
scope of this invention.
Referring now to FIG. 2, in this specific embodiment of the
invention, incoming telephone trunks carrying viewer calls are
connected to an incoming call director 24 of a suitable
commercially available design. The call director 24 answers a call
and directs it, in this preferred embodiment of the invention, to
an available one of a number of speaker independent voice
recognition units 26. In an alternative embodiment of the
invention, the interactive system responds to DTMF tone inputs and
the call director 24 would connect the incoming calls to a suitable
decoder for the DTMF signals.
The digital outputs of the voice recognition units 26, along with
the telephone company caller identification data decoded by call
director 24, are coupled as inputs to a processor 28. The processor
28 tests the incoming data against program parameters in order to
determine if the incoming call has been properly received and
encoded. If it has not, the processor 28 signals the incoming call
director via link 31, and the call director directs the call to an
operator 30, who can converse with the viewer and enter the viewer
response into the processor 28 via a keyboard and link 31.
An incoming call may be either a viewer response to the television
program material or a viewer requesting his or her performance
statistics from a television program in which he or she
participated. In a simple format, the viewer can be prompted by the
television program, or by a recording from the distributor 24, to
provide a password indicating the class of viewer call (e.g. "play"
or "results").
For each interactive television program, a data base of parameters
and tabulation routines is stored in a memory 34. The parameters
are time correlated to the television program material, or content
correlated, or a combination of the two. If the television material
is pre-recorded, a simple clock synchronized to the start of the
broadcast may used. It can correlate incoming viewer responses on
the basis of a time window in which they were received to a time
stamped sequence of parameters in memory 34. If the television
program material does not follow in a fixed time sequence, the
appropriate signals can be sent from the television source 12 to
the processor 28. For some television program materials, the
correlation between the parameters stored in memory 34 and the
viewer response can be on the basis of the content of the viewer
response.
For each viewer call, the viewer response is compared to the stored
parameter and the results of the comparison along with the results
of the responses of all viewers for a particular television program
are stored in a memory 38. Concurrently, the responses of all
responding viewers (or groups of viewers) are tabulated in
accordance with a routine stored in memory 34 and the tabulated
results are stored in a memory 36. These tabulated results in
memory 36 can be transmitted via the processor 28 to the television
station 12 for broadcast and/or display.
A viewer participant can also dial up the interactive system in
order to learn tabulated results of his or her participatory inputs
to the television program and a program computation the individual
relative to all responses or all responses from a relevant group.
The inbound call director 24 again directs the call to a voice
recognition unit 26 where the voice request is converted to a
digital input to processor 28 along with the telephone company
caller identification data. The processor 28 fetches the
participant data from memory 38 and the tabulated data for all
participants from memory 36. Processor 28 calculates a result based
on a routine, which may be stored in memory 34. This routine is
particularized to the content of the television program, and the
processor transfers the digital data result to a voice synthesizer
40. Of course, if desired, results for all participants can be
calculated and stored rather than calculating the results in
response to a caller request, as suggested here. The voice
synthesizer 40 announces results to the caller via telephone link
established by the call director 24.
While the invention has been described in terms of a single
preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that
the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit
and scope of the appended claims.
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